Developments in medical technology and associated treatments have been focused on clearing or removing thromboembolisms or “blood clots” from the cervical and cerebral vasculature in order to treat thromboembolic stroke victims. Thromboembolic stroke is a life threatening condition that consists of arrested blood flow to a region of the brain due to a thromboembolisum blocking a blood vessel feeding that region. Such thrombi often originate in the left heart chambers, break free into the aorta and flow downstream into the cervical neck arteries e.g. carotid arteries, and then ultimately lodge into a narrowed vessel somewhere down the narrowing vascular tree of the cerebral arteries associated with the brain in the head. Once lodged, the thrombus occludes flow along the vessel downstream of the blockage, thus arresting blood flow to the downstream blood vessel and causing the stroke.
Several grasping device assemblies and methods have been disclosed specifically for removing thrombi from the cervical and cerebral vessels in order to treat thromboembolic stroke. However, many of these devices have grasping assemblies that are not well adopted for delivery to distal regions of the cerebral vessels where many thromboembolisms are known to cause a debilitating stroke.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,679,893 describes a grasping device for removing thrombi from the cervical and cerebral vessels in order to treat thromboembolic stroke. This patent describes several grasping assemblies that may be utilized in its device. However, it is desired to have more flexibility in the selection of grasping assemblies depending on the type and location of the thrombi.
When retrieving a neurovascular clot or foreign body, a device having a distal grasping end with greater flexibility is desired. It is also desired to have a distal grasping end that is easily manufactured based on the desired flexibility.